HP needs touch-to-share more than you might think

In my review of the HP TouchPad, which we published last night, I went off on a tangent about the “touch-to-share” functionality Hewlett-Packard introduced with the TouchPad tablet and the Pre 3 smartphone. I think it bears repeating. In a nutshell, touch-to-share allows the user to tap a webOS smartphone to the TouchPad in order to push any URL in an open browser page from one device to the other. I wrote at length about this feature, which is still in its infancy but exhibits tremendous potential. But the real value for touch-to-share goes far beyond the technology itself. The feature is great and HP can take it in a million different directions, but the bigger picture here is that touch-to-share can become an amazing way for HP to differentiate its tablet from the competition in a way that might actually pique consumers’ interest. Tech companies are so concerned with catching up right now that they forgot a very important piece of the puzzle: valuable differentiation. Flash, for example, is not a way for a company to differentiate its products — just ask the senior RIM executive who recently made a plea for RIM to step up its game. Companies are so concerned with pushing media tablets out to market that they’re forgetting to give consumers a reason to buy them over the market leader, the Apple iPad. If an Apple competitor ever wants to see real, long-term success with a tablet line, valuable differentiated features like a mature touch-to-share solution are paramount. With that, hit the break for my thoughts on the technology, as originally seen in our review of the HP TouchPad.

—

In BGR’s first ever podcast, I mentioned my fondness of HP’s touch-to-share feature. This Touchstone technology married with Bluetooth (we mistakenly said in the podcast that HP used NFC for the feature, however this is not the case) allows a user to tap a Pre 3 smartphone to a TouchPad in order to take a web page being viewed on one device and open on the other. HP gave me a Pre 3 to test out the functionality and it works reasonably well. I found that there was a bit of a delay in opening passed URLs on the receiving device, but the ripple animation is nifty and this service, to me, is all about potential.

BGR Editor-in-chief Jonathan Geller responded to my cooing by mentioning Apple’s end-to-end iCloud solution, which, in part, synchronizes data on an iOS device across all iOS/Mac OS devices a user owns. It’s pretty great. But as elegant as Apple’s solution is, it’s not perfect. Today — or at least, once Apple releases iCloud to the masses — iCloud might be the simpler solution, and it also encompasses a wider range of data. Moving forward, however, I can see several areas where HP’s solution could provide clear advantages over iCloud. One such example is sharing.

In a bubble, syncing data effortlessly across all of your devices is all a user might be concerned with. But we live among other people, and we want to share things with those people. Can iCloud instantly and effortlessly share a v-card with an associate? Can iCloud share a photo or three with my wife? Can iCloud send a song or video to a buddy’s phone? Can iCloud mirror a task calendar entry on a coworker’s phone? The answer in all of these cases, and in countless others, is no.

ICloud is thorough, elegant solution for personal data management that will change the way we use our devices. But if HP doesn’t drop the ball, touch-to-share has the potential to change the way we interact with people in the physical world. You know, IRL.

There are other ways HP’s technology trumps iCloud — I love that I can make and receive calls and exchange text messages using the TouchPad when paired with the Pre 3 — but there are always plenty of ways iCloud’s utility far exceeds that of Touchstone. The ideal solution is unquestionably a combination of both technologies. And unless NFC rumors were accurate and Apple does indeed have some innovative NFC-based features coming to the iPhone in the near future, I think HP could get there first. HP is making big investments in cloud-based technologies — trust me, I constantly get press releases about said investments.

HP is in an interesting place right now because despite the fact that it has a lot of catching up to do in the mobile space, it finds itself in a position that perhaps most closely represents Apple’s. It builds hardware and it owns the software, so it can dictate the end-to-end user experience across desktop and mobile devices. HP does not own Windows on its computers, of course, but it will be adding webOS to its PCs on top of Windows so there is endless potential there. So HP could, for example, add Touchstone capabilities to its desktop computers with a simple peripheral. It could also use the bezel around a display or it could build the technology into the case around the keyboard. This would add a whole new dimension to Touchstone and really extend it to places we haven’t even considered. Then drop a cherry on top with a set of APIs that would allow third-party developers to build apps that employ Touchstone technology on smartphones, tablets, notebooks and desktop computers, and the potential is limitless.

Yeah that makes sense. Would explain the iPhone recall and zero sales.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

Hum… almost like a Chrome 2 phone feature. But it works two ways.

Att Google.

Do this now

-Thanks
Loyal Customer

al bundles

But the ability to run Flash IS a differentiator… Shouldn’t be the only difference though, that’s where the playbook is failing…

Anonymous

Every Android tablet Ad is trying to show why it is better than an iPad and the reason that always sticks out is FLASH. Don’t these companies understand that every Android tablet and non Android non Apple tablet coming out runs flash. Great they show us that they are not an iPad but they aren’t showing us why their specific $550 tablet is better than the $499 or that $429 tablet.

sirpaul

Flash is a pretty big feature to have on a tablet – I wouldn’t buy a tablet without flash. Most likely I will end up buying a high end tablet running Windows 7 – active digitizer is a must and there just aren’t a lot of options besides going full out.

Anonymous

Flash is a big feature? Every single review I’ve read, from biased sites to more neutral ones, say that the Playbook, the TouchPad, the Android tablets… all run Flash pretty piss poor. It’s not enough that the technology is there, it has to run well, and if I open a flash video or game on a web site and stutters, freezes, and doesn’t control properly, why would I use it?

http://twitter.com/cdoruff Collin Doruff

My xoom is finicky when it comes to flash. Sometimes it’s brilliant and sometimes it’s awful. Seems to depend on the site and/or connection.

sirpaul

From what I’ve read the PlayBook runs flash relatively well. Anyhow, doesn’t really matter in this case as I wasn’t making a comment about performance, but about a feature. A good tablet should be able to run flash.

http://profiles.google.com/brotherkane Brian Kane

I have an iPad 1 and iPad 2 and never miss flash. Most sites that run on it worth visiting have apps. The only time I have run into issues is researching restaurants. Many of those sites are in flash.

http://www.facebook.com/jcarioti Joe Carioti

I regularly use an iPad and I constantly have to grab my laptop to load up sites that require flash navigation. It’s just a matter of what type of browsing you do.

Anonymous

Hmm wonder what you are browsing? Most video on the web is supported on the iPad, most sites now have non flash versions. Hell the first video sites that adopted HTML 5 for video were the porn sites, once the porn industry does something normally everyone does it. Back in the days of the 3G and 3G S flash was still a problem but now it is become less and less of a problem.

http://twitter.com/sportsradio50 Seth

yup I could see Apple implementing something like this eventually, “Air Drop for iOS”

Anonymous

You really won’t need Air Drop tho, iCloud will have API’s open up to developers, there for the Kindle App on iMac, iPad and iPhone can sync where you left, play the game the Mac and it will save that progress on all devices. We may have to scratch that Kindle thing tho because they might get kicked out of the App Store because of the subscription policy, time will tell.

I really like webOS but HP still has a long road ahead of them I hope they can mature synergy more and release something other than pre designs.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jacob-Pelroy/673263325 Jacob Pelroy

Mature synergy… I agree, but at least they ALLOW synergy

Anonymous

I hear what you’re saying Zach but I do believe that it’s quite an overblown feature because tapping to share is actually a pain in the ass compared to tapping a button to share. You’re right that iCloud (and Chrome to phone/Google+) are more focused on personal data management but that will change shortly.

http://twitter.com/cdoruff Collin Doruff

I agree Marinperez. When I want to show my girlfriend a link from my Xoom to her phone, it’s easier to send her the link through google talk or email than it is to walk over to her and tap her phone to my tablet when i could just show her what ive found instead.

The feature is nice to have available, but in this stage, it just makes more sense to send the link, then you always have it on hand.

Anonymous

A Xoom user with a girlfriend? Great. Now I have to pay a coworker $20 for the bet I just lost. Lame.

Anonymous

You should give us all $20 for that joke.

http://www.facebook.com/jcarioti Joe Carioti

It’s not the URL sharing that’s being emphasized, it’s the API and the potential for the software. Imagine playing your game of choice, or responding to an important email and you need to leave all of a sudden. Tap your phone to the tablet, and your game or email app starts and loads all of the information from the tablet. Now you have all of your progress loaded right to your phone, like you never left the tablet.

Combine that with the ability to respond to texts and make calls from the tablet, and it’s basically owning two sizes of the same device that you can use seamlessly together.

Anonymous

That’s essentially what iCloud will enable, though.

But yeah, being able to use phone stuff from your tablet would be nifty.

http://profiles.google.com/atypicalgeek Bernd Friedmann

Will the Palm Pre3 ever come out … ha ha ha … just laughing at stupid HP now … by the time this thing comes out we will in the age of quad core processors … Hopefully they outsource this to HTC and Samsung so this OS doesn’t die. If HP keeps doing it it will never come up … they are way too stupid!

Jared

Touch to Share is one of the main reasons me and the boyfriend are looking into buying the TouchPad…that and webOS. Question though…anyone know if the Touch to Share feature works only between the Pre 3 and TouchPad or could it also work from Pre 3 to the Pre 3 and TP, to TP?

MortonEdward38309081

I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, LiveCent.com

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QT6WL4RIKYMWLQBVI7DQ6OT75E Thomas

Touch to Share seems like a throughback to the IR transfer function that was imbedded in Palm Pilots and Treo phones. This functionality was great and didn’t need any kind of elaborate setup or pairing. Like a lot of “features”, one has to use them to realize how indispensable they are. HP has the Palm legacy and the corporate weight to roll out similar features well before any competitor even knows what hit them.

Foreversand

Zach, great write-up. Only, its a bit off. More homework on your part is needed. WebOS already is a cloud based mobile operating system. Although, I do not know the specifics of Apple’s icloud functionality, the Palm Pre, Pixi and HP Veer phones that are currently available have the ability to sychronize data across multiple online databases.

Also, touch-to-share is the actual name of HP’s technology to share information between devices. The term touchstone is the physical ‘puck’ that the Touchpad and other HP/Palm products use to wirelessly charge their battery.

Buster

I played with a Veer today for the first time after seeing the commercial. Who is it made for preteen girls? I like WebOs a LOT. Love it but HP could just burn the money instead of wasting it like that

Anonymous

If the writer of this post also fully watched the videos the same RIM exec linked in his letter, he would have seen that the way to get your product off the shelves and into consumer hands is more than differentiation. It’s about selling the consumer on the ‘why’, ‘how’, and ‘what’. Not the other way around which until now every Apple competitor is doing.

Differentiation isn’t going to get HP and WebOS into consumer hands. An appealing market strategy which builds momentum from consumers ‘loving’ the product and ‘feeling’ emotionally attached to it does.

Up to now, just how many people feel that way about WebOS? Then again, other than us geeks, how many people know what WebOS is?

Abunn3

First hearing about Touch to Share I wasn’t all that excited by it, but after reading the article I think HP might be on to something. Adding it to PCs and laptops as mentioned in the article is an interesting idea, but I think adding it to HP printers is another way to get some market traction. I can imagine Touch to Print as something that would pique the interest of average Joe consumer.

Abunn3

First hearing about Touch to Share I wasn’t all that excited by it, but after reading the article I think HP might be on to something. Adding it to PCs and laptops as mentioned in the article is an interesting idea, but I think adding it to HP printers is another way to get some market traction. I can imagine Touch to Print as something that would pique the interest of average Joe consumer.

Abunn3

First hearing about Touch to Share I wasn’t all that excited by it, but after reading the article I think HP might be on to something. Adding it to PCs and laptops as mentioned in the article is an interesting idea, but I think adding it to HP printers is another way to get some market traction. I can imagine Touch to Print as something that would pique the interest of average Joe consumer.